Vinyl flooring has been a popular floor covering material for many years. Vinyl flooring is typically available in either tile or sheet form for both commercial and residential use. As finished flooring material, vinyl tile has been used extensively in commercial, institutional and public building applications, such as, for example, malls, schools, healthcare facilities, convention and exposition centers, civic buildings, private office buildings, sports facilities, and so forth. Vinyl flooring is durable, easy to maintain and is often more moisture-resistant than many alternative flooring materials. Vinyl flooring can also have limited acoustical properties, in that the material offers some rebound or resilience upon compression (i.e., when walked on).
Vinyl tiles can be composed of colored vinyl formed into generally planar solid sheets by heat and pressure, and cut into squares or other shapes. Manufacturers have created vinyl tiles that very closely resemble wood, stone, terrazzo, and concrete. Tiles are typically applied to a smooth, leveled bare floor or sub-floor usually using a suitable adhesive.
Conventional vinyl tiles are often installed over an acoustical base layer such as rubber or cork. The acoustical layer can serve one or more of a variety of different functions in a given installation. In some installations, the function of this underlayment material is to provide a cushioning effect to the floor system. In other situations, the function of the underlayment material is to compensate for imperfections in the surface of the subfloor, which can be concrete, plywood, or a number of other different materials that are commonly used and known. Another function of the underlayment, which is particularly pertinent to the present invention, is to reduce the transmission of sound through the floor to a room below, such as in the case of a multi-floor building. This is particularly significant where the maximum allowable level of sound transmission is controlled by local building codes, which is increasingly common.
In such cases, a single acoustical base layer is adhered to the sub-floor, and the vinyl tiles are installed over the acoustical base layer, again using an adhesive.
Many conventional commercially available adhesive materials are chemically incompatible with vinyl polymers and will in some instances not provide the necessary long-term adhesion. In even more extreme cases, certain adhesives will chemically react with the vinyl polymers resulting in discoloration and/or degradation of the vinyl tiles. Moreover, breakdown of the adhesive bond between the acoustical base layer and the vinyl tile can lead to increased noise, which as previously noted, can be a problem in multi-family dwellings.
The base layer and vinyl tiles are standard elements that are used without regard for the particular sub-floor structure upon which the sub-floor is laid.
Different building structures can transmit sound differently, depending upon the materials of construction as well as the construction arrangement (e.g., wooden floor/ceiling beams, poured concrete, and the like). Because current vinyl tile systems employ a standard base layer, they are incapable of dampening sound optimally across a variety of floor/ceiling structure types. For example, while a typical tile may provide reasonable acoustical dampening when applied over a poured concrete floor, it may not provide acceptable dampening when applied over a wood beam-supported floor.
Thus, there is a need for an improved vinyl tile having improved long term stability as compared to conventional vinyl tiles and vinyl flooring systems. The improved vinyl tile should also provide a desired resilience, with exceptional sound dampening properties that meet applicable acoustical limitations associated with multi-family dwellings. The improved vinyl tile should also be easy to manufacture and install. These and a number of additional objectives are met by the disclosed vinyl tile.